Data shows hospital has high death rate (From Bury Times)

Data shows hospital has high death rate

7:00am Sunday 6th December 2009

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THE trust which runs Fairfield General Hospital has “significantly high” death rates, according to a new report.

But the organisation behind the data has admitted the figures do not tell the full story.

The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which also manages North Manchester, Rochdale Infirmary and Royal Oldham, is named in the Dr Foster Hospital Guide 2009 as one of 27 trusts with “significantly high” Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratios (HSMRs). But the trust says it has made improvements, and claims its “poor” rating is because of how the figures are worked out.

A spokesman for Pennine Acute Hospitals said: “The trust monitors mortality on a monthly basis using CHKS methodology (an alternative tool to Dr Foster).

“Using the CHKS 2008 standard for measuring HSMRs our HSMR in 2005 was 120, in 2006 111, in 2007 107 and in 2008, 98. This shows a steady improvement in standardised mortality year on year. Dr Foster have changed the method used to calculate their standardised mortality which makes year on year comparison unhelpful.”

A spokesman for Dr Foster said: “This year has seen a higher than usual national improvement in mortality ratios, with many hospitals achieving significant reductions in mortality.

“This is excellent news. However, it has made it harder than usual for trusts with relatively high mortality to show improvement against the national average.”

Dr Foster, a consultancy that analyses health information, uses a complicated formula for working out hypothetical “expected deaths”, based on factors such as economic deprivation in an area.

It then produces a Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratio to show if more, or fewer, people than expected have died in hospital.

The average HSMR is 100. A figure under that means a hospital has fewer deaths than expected, so is performing well — anything over 100 suggests it is not performing as well as it could, according to Dr Foster.

Pennine Acute Hospitals has a ratio of 110, meaning 10 per cent more people died in 2008/9 than Dr Foster expected.

The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is one of seven trusts to record a poor mortality rate over five years.

It is one of five in the region with high HSMRs, with the others being the Royal Bolton Hospital, Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Hospitals, Mid Cheshire Hospitals and Tameside Hospital.

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